An Investigation of the Use of Wikis in English Language Learning

作     者：邹斌 项骅 S.JEACO 

作者机构：西交利物浦大学英语语言中心 英国伦敦政治经济学院 

出 版 物：《Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics》 (中国应用语言学（英文）)

年 卷 期：2012年第35卷第1期

页      面：99-116,129页

学科分类：0502[文学-外国语言文学] 050201[文学-英语语言文学] 05[文学] 

基　　金：part of a provincial key project of Jiangsu "The 11th Five-Year Plan" of the Scientific Education Program dating 2009 to 2011 (project number:B-b/2009/01/043) 

主　　题：Wikis online collaboration English Chinese 

摘      要：This paper presents a study exploring the efficacy of Wikis in an online language exchange program involving a purposeful sample of university students from China and the UK. The article first provides a brief overview of the use of Web 2.0 applications in language education. It then specifically addresses the potential advantages of using Wikispaces in second language acquisition, particularly in tasks designed for the purpose of collaborative learning. Research methods employed in the study included questionnaire, interview and analysis of textual input on Wikis. Participants were students from two partner universities in China and the UK, who communicated with each other in English and Chinese to discuss curriculum-based topics posted to the China-UK Wikispaces. The results demonstrate that tasks designed for Wikis offer students constructive opportunities to communicate with each other and develop their language proficiencies. The findings also indicate that the informed involvement of language tutors in selecting topics and designing tasks is instrumental in effectively facilitating and further enhancing students＇ experiences of collaborative learning on Wikis.